Conveyor systems comprising a train of consecutive carrier elements movable generally along a linear and/or curved pre-selected path or course and which may provide a forward and return motion, are widely used for a variety of applications, including the movement of articles and/or people. Various types of drive assemblies, carrier belts, and support elements are employed in such systems including belts, rollers, gears, chains, platens and the like or combinations of the same.
In conveyor systems with relative articulated or nonlinear movement, it is common practice to employ endless chain conveyors with chain links pivotally secured together and platform members mounted thereon or chains of carrier members pivotally linked together which employ drive assemblies associated therewith, wherein the links articulate on transverse axes to enable the conveyors to bend and traverse about drive and idler sprockets with the same ease that they travel over the running axis. It is also known to use support structures for such conveyor systems which generally serve both to provide support for the chain of connected carrier elements, the conveyor drive assembly and/or combinations thereof as well as defining a preselected course for the conveyor system.
The conveyor flights typically employed with endless chain-type conveyor systems for supporting articles to be conveyed are plate or platform members formed with generally planar upper surfaces. To provide articulated-section conveyors adapted to follow linear and non-linear paths without opening gaps between adjacent article support members, there are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,757,652, 1,800,663, 3,317,030, 3,554,360, and 3,685,637, the use of generally crescent-shape configured article support members which are adjacently oriented in the conveyor chain, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,379,300, 3,399,758, 3,595,377, and 3,738,478 other configurations of generally contiguous support members which are suggested as useful in providing substantially continuous flights for conveyors moving along an irregular path.
There has been no capability described in prior constructions that, in general, permit the ready assembly and/or disassembly of the conveyors or separation of article support members from conventional conveyor drive chains, nor are such constructions suggested for conveyors particularly intended to follow articulating irregular paths of travel which may include sharp bends of short radius. Conveyor systems that may be conveniently and readily adapted for varying loads and conveyor paths of the closed loop-type such as spur conveyors where efficient use of space requires sharp turn-arounds and relatively small diameter drive sprockets, would be highly desirable.